Smartphone

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to the field of communication device technology, more particularly, to a smartphone, the structures such as the handset and the physical buttons of the mobile phone are configured on the side or the back side of the phone body, so as to extend the display area (namely touch operation area) of the mobile phone to the whole front surface of the mobile phone, to realize full-screen display without borders, and to enhance the beauty of the appearance of the smart phone, thus to effectively improve the user experience.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/174,636, filed on Jun. 12, 2015, theentire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to the field of communication device technology,more particularly, to a smartphone.

2. Description of the Related Art

Nowadays, the improvement of science and the advent of the informationage make the development of the mobile communication terminalequipments, such as the mobile phones, become faster, especially thepopularity of touch screen mobile phones brought by Apple Inc makessmartphones become one of the things to be carried on for people's dailylife.

In order to make the appearance of smartphones more beautiful, thescreen made by many mobile manufacturers becomes more “narrow”; however,to implement the convenience of operation of mobile phones, the presentmobile phones only remove the border on two sides of the phone, howeverthe top and bottom ends of the phone still need an reserve area toconfigure the handset and/or physical buttons (such as the home key),therefore the narrow edge effect of the entire mobile surface can not beachieved.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the structure of the traditionalsmartphones; as shown in FIG. 1, due to the operating habits oftraditional users and convenience of operation, the display area 11 ofthe mobile phone 1 can only be expanded in the X direction to achievenarrow edge on two sides of the border, and due to the requirement ofconfiguring the handset 12 in top area 14 and physical buttons (such asthe home key) 13 in bottom area 15 of the mobile phone 1, the displayarea 11 cannot be expanded in the Y direction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above-mentioned problems, this application provides asmartphone, and the smartphone comprising:

-   -   a back shell, having a groove structure;    -   a circuit board, embedded in the groove structure of the back        shell;    -   a screen module, electrically connected to the circuit board,        and located above the circuit board;    -   a transparent cover plate, configured to seal an open end of the        groove structure to form a closed space area containing the        circuit board and the screen module, and having a cover area        parallel to the screen module; wherein    -   a light emitted by the screen module penetrates through the        transparent cover plate to form a first display area, and a        ratio of area of the first display area to the cover area of the        transparent cover plate R is no less than 0.9.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   the screen module is a liquid crystal display module.

As a preferred embodiment, the above-mentioned smartphone furthercomprises a handset, and the handset is configured in the groovestructure and aligned to one side edge of the back shell.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   the smartphone has a front side provided with the first display        area and a back side opposite to the front side, and a top side,        a bottom side and vertical sides are configured between the        front side and the back side; and    -   the handset is selectively exposed to the front side of the        first display area, the top side or the vertical sides adjacent        to the position of the top side.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   when the handset is exposed to the front side of the first        display area, the transparent cover plate comprises a short        corner or an opening, and the handset is exposed through the        short corner or the opening.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   the screen module is an AMOLED (Active Matrix/Organic Light        Emitting Diode) display module.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   the AMOLED display module is a flexible AMOLED display module.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   the flexible AMOLED display module has a flexible surface at the        vertical sides.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   the flexible AMOLED display module has a flexible surface at the        top side and/or the bottom side.

As a preferred embodiment, the above-mentioned smartphone furthercomprises:

-   -   a radio module, configured on the bottom side or on the vertical        sides adjacent to the position of the bottom side in relative to        the handset.

As a preferred embodiment, the above-mentioned smartphone furthercomprises:

-   -   a camera module, configured on any side except for the front        side of the smartphone.

As a preferred embodiment, the above-mentioned smartphone furthercomprises:

-   -   a camera module, configured on the back side of the smartphone.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   a second display area is formed on the back side of the        smartphone.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   the resolution of the second display area is no greater than        that of the first display area.

As a preferred embodiment, in the above-mentioned smartphone:

-   -   a type of the second display area selected from a group        consisting of AMOLED screen, LCD display and electronic paper        display.

The above technical solution has the following advantages or beneficialeffects:

The smartphone described in this application extends the display area(namely touch operation area) of the mobile phone to the entire frontsurface of the mobile phone by configuring structures such as thehandset and the physical buttons of the mobile phone on the side or theback side of the phone body, to realize full-screen display withoutborders, and to enhance the beauty of the appearance of the smartphone,thus to effectively improve the user experience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, together with the specification, illustrateexemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, and, together with thedescription, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram for a traditional smartphone;

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram for the smartphone of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a cutaway diagram of FIG. 2 at A-A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodimentsof the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Likereference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” or “includes” and/or “including” or “has” and/or“having” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features,regions, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, butdo not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features,regions, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/orgroups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and thepresent disclosure, and will not be interpreted in an idealized oroverly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

As used herein, “around”, “about” or “approximately” shall generallymean within 20 percent, preferably within 10 percent, and morepreferably within 5 percent of a given value or range. Numericalquantities given herein are approximate, meaning that the term “around”,“about” or “approximately” can be inferred if not expressly stated.

As used herein, the term “plurality” means a number greater than one.

Hereinafter, certain exemplary embodiments according to the presentdisclosure will be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

The smartphone provided in the embodiment of the invention moves thestructures such as the handset, the radio module and the physicalbuttons which are configured on the front surface of the mobile phonepresently to the side of the phone, namely the front side of the phoneis used only for the display area, and so that the display area be ableto extend to the entire front surface of the mobile phone, toeffectively enhance the beauty of appearance of the mobile phone, andmeanwhile to improve the user experience.

Hereinafter, the smartphone of the invention will be described in detailwith reference to accompanying drawings and exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram for the smartphone of the application,FIG. 3 is a cutaway diagram of FIG. 2 at A-A.

As shown in FIG. 2, a smartphone of this embodiment comprises a phonebody 2, the phone body 2 has a front side (not marked in the figure, canbe understood as a side surface of the phone body 2 facing the readers)for configuring the first display area (namely the main operating toucharea of mobile phone) and a back side (not marked in the figure, can beunderstood as a side surface back of the phone body 2 opposite to thereaders) opposite to the front side, and a top side 211, a bottom side212 and vertical sides 213 on two sides are configured between the frontside and the back side (namely the side of the phone body 2) of thephone body 2.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the above-mentioned phone body 2 comprisesa back shell 201 having a groove structure, a circuit board 202, ascreen module 203 and a transparent cover plate 204, both the circuitboard 202 and the screen module 203 can be put into the above-mentionedgroove structure, and the circuit board 202 is connected to the screenmodule 203 to drive the screen module 203 to shine for forming thedisplay area; and the transparent cover plate 204 covers on the backshell 201 to seal the groove structure and to form a closed space areafor containing and protecting the circuit board 202 and the screenmodule 203, and the light emitted by the screen module 203 penetratesthrough the transparent cover plate 204 to form a first display area 21on the front surface of the phone body 2, the first display area 21 canbe used for the touch screen or the main screen in multi-screens of thephone body 2.

Preferably, a ratio of area of the above-mentioned first display area 21to the surface (the surface used to cover) of the cover area of thetransparent cover plate 204 R is no less than 0.9, such as the R is 0.9,0.92. 0.95 or 0.98, and even may be equal to 1.

Preferably, the above-mentioned screen module 203 may be a liquidcrystal display module or an AMOLED display module, such as a flexibleAMOLED display module, etc.; accordingly, the sides of the phone body 2,such as the top side 211 and/or the bottom side 212 and/or the verticalside 213, can be provided with flexible sides, to form the side displayarea.

Further, the above-mentioned phone body 2 also comprises a handset (notmarked in figure) configured in the side, namely the handset can beconfigured in the groove structure and aligned to any one side edge(such as the top side, the bottom side and the vertical side location,etc.) of the back shell 201; in addition, the above-mentioned handset isselectively exposed to the front side the first display area 21, the topside or the vertical sides, and is configured near the position of thetop side, for example, when the handset is configured on the verticalsides 213, the handset is configured near the top side 211, and isexposed to the front area of the first display area through an shortangle or an opening configured on the transparent cover plate, so thatthe users can hear the sound played by the handset.

Preferably, the above-mentioned handset may comprise a handset module(not shown) and openings (not shown), and the handset module isconfigured in the back shell 201 (such as in the above-mentioned groovestructure), the openings can be through-holes configured on thetransparent cover plate 204 or through-holes formed by the gap on thetransparent cover plate 204 together with the back shell 201, topenetrate the transparent cover plate 204, to transmit the sound playedby the handset module to the outside of the phone body 2, so that theusers hear the sound.

Further, the above-mentioned phone body 2 further comprises a radiomodule (not shown), the radio module is configured to the position inrelative to the above-mentioned receiver module, for example, the radiomodule is configured to the position in relative to the receiver moduleon the bottom side 212 of the phone body 2, or the vertical sides 213adjacent to the bottom side 212, so as to collect the user's voice.

Preferably, based on the openings in the above-mentioned handset, theback shell 201 and the transparent cover plate 204 are also providedwith openings for transmitting voice in relative to the receiver module,the structure of the openings can be equal or approximate to theopenings of the handset, and they may also be formed by any known way.

Further, the above-mentioned phone body 2 also comprises a camera module(not shown) which is configured on any other surfaces of the phone body2 except the front side, namely the front side of the phone body 2 isnot provided with a front camera.

Preferably, the camera module can be configured on the back side of thephone body 2, and a second display area (not shown in figure) is formedon the back side, namely the phone body 2 is a multi-screen smartphone;and the second display area can be displayed by one or more of theAMOLED screen, LCD display, electronic paper display, etc., namely asingle display or multiple displays can be configured on the seconddisplay area, and can be configured according to the requirement.

Preferably, the above-mentioned second display area can be used asself-timer for users, the resolution of the second display area is nogreater than that of the first display area.

In summary, in the above-mentioned embodiment of the invention, thenecessary structures such as the handset are configured on the side orthe back side of the mobile phone (aligning to the edges of the mobilephone), and the unnecessary structures such as physical buttons (e.g.,home key, volume key, etc.), front-facing camera are removed, so thatthe entire front surface of the mobile phone can be used to form thedisplay area to realize the full-screen display without borders, and toenhance the beauty of the appearance of the smartphone, thus toeffectively improve the user experience.

The foregoing is only the preferred embodiments of the invention, notthus limiting embodiments and scope of the invention, those skilled inthe art should be able to realize that the schemes obtained from thecontent of specification and figures of the invention are within thescope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A smartphone, comprising: a back shell, having a groove structure; a circuit board, embedded in the groove structure of the back shell; a screen module, electrically connected to the circuit board, and located above the circuit board; a transparent cover plate, configured to seal an open end of the groove structure to form a closed space area containing the circuit board and the screen module, and having a cover area parallel to the screen module; wherein a light emitted by the screen module penetrates through the cover glass to form a first display area, and a ratio of area of the first display area to the cover area of the transparent cover plate R is no less than 0.9.
 2. The smartphone according to claim 1, wherein the screen module is a liquid crystal display module.
 3. The smartphone according to claim 1, further comprises a handset configured in the groove structure and aligned to one side edge of the back shell.
 4. The smartphone according to claim 3, wherein the smartphone has a front side provided with the first display area and a back side opposite to the front side, and a top side, a bottom side and vertical sides are configured between the front side and the back side; and the handset is selectively exposed to the front side of the first display area, the top side or the vertical sides adjacent to the position of the top side.
 5. The smartphone according to claim 4, wherein when the handset is exposed to the front side of the first display area, the transparent cover plate comprises a short corner or an opening, and the handset is exposed through the short corner or the opening.
 6. The smartphone according to claim 3, wherein the screen module is an AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) display module.
 7. The smartphone according to claim 6, wherein the AMOLED display module is a flexible AMOLED display module.
 8. The smartphone according to claim 7, wherein the flexible AMOLED display module has a flexible surface at the vertical sides.
 9. The smartphone according to claim 7, wherein the flexible AMOLED display module has a flexible surface at the top side and/or the bottom side.
 10. The smartphone according to claim 3, further comprises: a radio module configured on the bottom side or on the vertical sides adjacent to the position of the bottom side in relative to the handset.
 11. The smartphone according to claim 3, further comprises: a camera module, configured on the back side of the smartphone.
 12. The smartphone according to claim 11, wherein a second display area is formed on the back side of the smartphone.
 13. The smartphone according to claim 12, wherein the resolution of the second display area is no greater than that of the first display area.
 14. The smartphone according to claim 13, wherein a type of the second display area is selected from a group consisting of AMOLED display, LCD display, and electronic paper display. 